The present invention relates to a crushing machine and method of operation and more particularly to such a crushing machine of a vibratory rotating type which is adapted for efficient crushing operation at a rate comparable to that of conventional crushers of substantially greater size, weight and bulk while using considerably less power than such conventional crushers.
Conventional rotating vibratory crushers of the type referred to above are generally formed with a rotor driven in positive eccentric fashion relative to a surrounding stator. The stator commonly has a cone shaped configuration, a crushing effect being produced between the rotor and stator. Within such a crusher, the positive eccentric drive of the rotor relative to the stator introduces a number of problems. Initially, it is necessary to provide very heavy mountings between the rotor and stator in order to resist the positive eccentric drive force applied to the rotor. At the same time, the positive drive for the rotor often causes damage or plugging within the crusher when material such as metal enters between the rotor and stator. Since such metallic objects and the like are sufficiently ductile to resist crushing, their presence within the crusher usually tends to either cause damage to a portion of the crusher or to plug the crusher and prevent its continued operation.
At the same time, such conventional cone type crushers are generally inefficient because of the need to provide the positive eccentric drive for the rotor relative to the fixed stator.
Reference is also made to another type of vibratory crusher described particularly within U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,096 entitled CRUSHING APPARATUS and issued Feb. 26, 1963 to David P. McConnell, father of the inventor herein.
That patent discloses a vibratory jaw type crusher wherein a pair of opposed crusher jaws are mounted on a frame for floating vibratory movement toward and away from each other, eccentric drive forces being applied to the jaws for effecting a synchronized vibratory movement of the jaws in order to develop a powerful crushing action therebetween with relatively low power requirements. More particularly, the jaws are driven by shafts with eccentric weights arranged upon the shafts so that the jaws have a gyratory vibrating movement upwardly in unison away from one another and downwardly in unison toward one another in a manner causing particles being crushed between the jaws to be moved in a downward direction, thereby resulting in the desired crushing action at a particularly effective rate.
Although the vibratory jaw crusher referred to above was found to perform very satisfactorily, there has been found to remain a need for an even further improved crusher having generally similar low power requirements while avoiding the need for resisting the relative reaction forces between the jaws. In addition, there has also been found to remain a need for an improved vibratory crusher having an even greater crushing rate for crushing large quantities of materials such as rock, gravel and ore.